I want to make some of my freight cars look like they are old and dirty. How can I do this.
Thank You![:o)]
hi there
there are many ways to “weather”(make dirty) your freight cars, from pastel chalks to simply a wash of black streaked over the cars I like that method the most it creates a quick dirty looking car but use a large bru***hat will cover the entire car.One more thing about weathering,don’t dirty all your cars to the same degree because if you noticed on real trains there not all dirty the same.
hope that helps
Jeremy
One of my favorite tricks is to get some real dirt & rocks and fill a baggie. Put in your car & let the rocks grind away to make scratch marks. Repair any “holes” with patches. Have fun with your weathering!
[quote]
Originally posted by Aaron Dingus
I want to make some of my freight cars look like they are old and dirty. How can I do this.
Thank You![:o)]
As I’ve said so many times before, do it the natural way, bury all plastic parts in your back yard for a month or so, then go dig them up. What weathering[:)][:)][:)]
Aaron,
Get a copy of the February 2003 Model Railroader magazine, in which you’ll find and article by John Pryke titled ‘Quick and dirty freight car weathering’ . The article details some easy techniques using an airbrush and a few basic colors to ‘dirty up’ rolling stock for a realistic look.
Regards,
Bruce J.
Aaron,
Weathering is an art form. Expect it to take a few attempts to get the “perfect car”. It can also be fickle, some times the magic works other times not. Don’t be afraid to jump right in. The advice already in this thread is good. I have a few more ideas:
Try not to over weather. You can always add more.
Keep at the car until it looks right. Many times I have wanted to quit because I thought I was screwing up but have kept at it until the car looks right. Had I given up, I would have had a crummy looking car. I know this this idea and the previous one are at odds…
A good place to start is to buy some weathering chalks. They are easy to use and will wash off if you don’t like the results. Go for the rust, grime, soot, dark brown and grey colors…
Kill the shine on the trucks and wheels… Painting or chalking up the trucks makes a huge difference even if you hardly touch the rest of the car…
Keep weathering. I have weathered about half of the cars on my railroad and I think they really make things look realistic. You may produce a few dogs in the process (hopefully not) but don’t give up…I know several Master modelers who have cars that they keep hidden or in the back because the weathering didn’t come out as well as they would have liked…It hasn’t stopped them, They weather everything…
Guy
I weathered a box car my accident once. It got some 99% alcohol on it when I was cleaning, when I realized the paint was breaking down I run it to the kitchen and put it under the tap. The effect is kind of a whited chemical spill look.
Alternatively, you could install a carwash on the mailine and not worry about weathering.[:)][:)][:)][:)]
But seriously, if you weather the cars don’t forget to weather your structures, track etc as well.
Enjoy
Paul
Several technigues not mentioned:
- Dark cars get light with dirt and light cars get darker. I airbrush Floquil Dust on the trucks and lower portion of the car sides. Use Roof Brown for gray or white cars sparingly. Streaked patterns are formed from drips off the roof. Us an alomst dry brush ans start from the bottom of the streak and pull the bru***oward the top of the car with more pressure as you go. If too prononuced dip the brush in thinner and spread the drip after wiping off most of the thinner
- India ink in alcahol really highlights seams and details. Just spray it on using a mister bottle of some type. If you don’t like it just spray again and wipe it off.
- Leave cars out in the sun so the paint fades from the UV light or use a UV flourescent light for plants.
- Overspray the car with the same color in a flat paint very lightly to do the same thing.
- Darg some of the same color paint as the lettering in a wash down form the lettering to look like it has oxidized and run some.
- Paint out the reporting marks and logo and put somebody elses on the car. Real RR’s do it all the time. More prevalent right aftera rr goes out of business and the rolling stock is sold or auctioned off.
- Volunteer your equipment for a demo at your local hobby shop if they offer classes or demonstrations to modelers.
Send them all to me and I’ll use them 20 years and send the back to you all dusty and dirty. Here’s one you all missed, give one to a four year old boy along with a tootsie pop or icecream cone and send him out in the yard to play on a hot summer day. Dent and ding with a soldering iron. Scratch with 80 grit sand paper for scratches. Mark on them with whiteout for grafetti or inspection #. Buy decals from Blair Line for grafettis. Use a heat gun on gondolas to heat and bow out the sides. Lots of rust paint. Testors dull coat. Use charcoal and gray washes.
If you use chalks or dirt of some kind you’ll want to fix it in place with dullcoat. Indeed dullcoat alone helps age a car a little.
If you lack an air brush … some years ago a teenager submitted an MR article showing how he weathered cars using spray cans of flat or matte earth colors – by “bouncing” the paint off a piece of card stock, rather than hit the car directly with the paint spray. This technique tales a little practice so practice on a junker car or even just on a piece of wood. But with car some decent results can be obtained.
Dave Nelson
In the similar “natural” weathering trick, I’ve left some rolling stock sit out in the open on shelves (ones I don’t operate much if not at all), and they have accumulated dust and dirt.
It does look natural and real! It works if I don’t touch the cars too much LOL.
Take care[:)]
Russell
grab a hammer…
(sorry, it’s been a loooong day, I’m kidding)
Prov 22:6
Please see my response to this other thread:
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7380
I use a combination of chalks and washes which is very simple and very effective. One thing I did not mention, however, was to work from photographs. You don’t need to have a photo of every specific car; just spend some time railfanninf near a yard or busy mainline and take some shots of a variety of cars. If you’re modeling an earlier time frame, you might need to do research online or in books to find good photos. At any rate, try to do a few cars that are an exact match for a given photograph, as this will inform you as to what sorts of grime accumulates where, and what types of cars exhibit features like chemical spills or phosphor streaks, etc. After doing some of these, you’ll do a much more credible job on the rest of your fleet, just eyeballing it.
I want to make some of my freight cars look like they are old and dirty. How can I do this.
Thank You![:o)]
hi there
there are many ways to “weather”(make dirty) your freight cars, from pastel chalks to simply a wash of black streaked over the cars I like that method the most it creates a quick dirty looking car but use a large bru***hat will cover the entire car.One more thing about weathering,don’t dirty all your cars to the same degree because if you noticed on real trains there not all dirty the same.
hope that helps
Jeremy
One of my favorite tricks is to get some real dirt & rocks and fill a baggie. Put in your car & let the rocks grind away to make scratch marks. Repair any “holes” with patches. Have fun with your weathering!
[quote]
Originally posted by Aaron Dingus
I want to make some of my freight cars look like they are old and dirty. How can I do this.
Thank You![:o)]
As I’ve said so many times before, do it the natural way, bury all plastic parts in your back yard for a month or so, then go dig them up. What weathering[:)][:)][:)]
Aaron,
Get a copy of the February 2003 Model Railroader magazine, in which you’ll find and article by John Pryke titled ‘Quick and dirty freight car weathering’ . The article details some easy techniques using an airbrush and a few basic colors to ‘dirty up’ rolling stock for a realistic look.
Regards,
Bruce J.
Aaron,
Weathering is an art form. Expect it to take a few attempts to get the “perfect car”. It can also be fickle, some times the magic works other times not. Don’t be afraid to jump right in. The advice already in this thread is good. I have a few more ideas:
Try not to over weather. You can always add more.
Keep at the car until it looks right. Many times I have wanted to quit because I thought I was screwing up but have kept at it until the car looks right. Had I given up, I would have had a crummy looking car. I know this this idea and the previous one are at odds…
A good place to start is to buy some weathering chalks. They are easy to use and will wash off if you don’t like the results. Go for the rust, grime, soot, dark brown and grey colors…
Kill the shine on the trucks and wheels… Painting or chalking up the trucks makes a huge difference even if you hardly touch the rest of the car…
Keep weathering. I have weathered about half of the cars on my railroad and I think they really make things look realistic. You may produce a few dogs in the process (hopefully not) but don’t give up…I know several Master modelers who have cars that they keep hidden or in the back because the weathering didn’t come out as well as they would have liked…It hasn’t stopped them, They weather everything…
Guy